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World of DX-ing

October 11 2024 – Qt-DAB-6.X update

Posted on by FMDABDXer

Today Jan Van Katwijk released an updated version of Qt-DAB-6.X.
You can download the new Qt-DAB and the updated manual on Jan’s Github releases page.
Jan Van Katwijk appreciates your comments and feedback on his Qt-DAB Github issues page.

What’s new in today’s update?
In the Configuration and control widget a new spinbox can be found in which the TII decoding threshold can be set. The lower the value the more false positive TII codes will be generated. The default setting is 4.

I also noticed when using the updated Qt-DAB and a RTL SDR V4 dongle and setting the TII spinbox to 0, Qt completely crashed. The only way to get it working again was unplugging the RTL SDR, restarting Qt-DAB with another device and then setting the threshold to a higher value.
After changing the device back to RTL SDR the problem was solved.
In the October 12 update the minimum setting is 3, preventing the user to start a TII decoding loop.

New TII spinbox

In the Configuration and control widget the user can now set the audio handler i.e. PORTAUDIO or QT_AUDIO.
The change will be effective after a Qt-DAB restart.
With QT_AUDIO there’s a volume slider on the right hand side of the Main widget.

Qt_DAB update with new audio handler

September 23 2024 – Qt-DAB-6.X update

Posted on by FMDABDXer

In the September 18 Qt-DAB update unidentified TII codes were shown, but not logged.
Today Jan Van Katwijk updated Qt-DAB and codes not matching with the database entries are now saved in the tii-files.txt log which can be found in the
C:\Users\XXX\Qt-DAB-files folder.
(Linux: the file is in the tmp directory in the subdirectory Qt_DAB-files.)
Data in this file are NOT deleted after a session.
The tii-files.txt file will get bigger and bigger and the user will have to manually delete it if it becomes too large.
Mind you TII codes are only logged in the DX mode.

You can download the update Qt-DAB on Jan’s Github releases page.
Jan Van Katwijk appreciates your comments and feedback on his Qt-DAB Github issues page.

Qt-DAB unid TII codes

September 22 2024 – AbracaDABra 2.5.92 (RC)

Posted on by FMDABDXer

A few days ago Petr Kopecký released AbracaDABra 2.5.92 (RC) with some new features.
I’ve been using AbracaDABra for quite a while mainly for casual listening while doing other stuff on my computer.
AbracaDABra is easy to use and in my view not really a DAB DX tool like QIRX or Qt-DAB.
But this has changed with version 2.5.90 and up!
You can download AbracaDABra from Petr’s Github release page.
AbracaDABra is great with a RTL SDR stick. You can also use Airspy, Soapy SDR or RTL_tcp.

What’s new in 2.5.92?
° Audio can be (un)muted via the tray icon.
° Ensemble info can be exported in a .csv file.

Starting with 2.5.90 (beta) great features like a map and TII decoding have been added.

  • Via the settings (1) (3 dots) and the TII tab you can add your location (3) and import data from the fmlist. Do check the ‘Show spectrum plot’. Activate the map and spectrum plot (2) via the three dots and TII decoder.
  • At the top left of the map (4) all TII info can be seen and sorted. Clicking a line will highlight this code on the map (6) and vice versa! Highlighting a TII at the top left or on the map will activate an info box (7) at the bottom right of the map. Unknown TII codes are shown too.
  • An info box at the top right (5) of the map shows Ensemble, ECC, EID and the channel.

MIND YOU: the TII and map features only work in expert mode (Settings–>Others).

AbracaDABra 2.5.92 (RC)

September 21 2024 – DAB preamp

Posted on by FMDABDXer

With great Indian summer weather and some time to spend on the hobby today some modifications were made.

My Körner 15.11 performs excellently, especially after the maintenance I did last June.
A few weeks ago I had a look at some old mails from Peter Körner in which he pointed out the 15.11 coax balun shouldn’t touch the boom directly as this could influence performance negatively.
So I made sure this was fixed, but admittedly I couldn’t find much difference in the 15.11 performance.
Then again I guess this fix won’t hurt performance anyway.

Balun free from boom
Balun free from boom

Next step was installing a new preamp for the stacked FUBA DAT 307 DAB antennas.
I’ve been using the RTLSDR Wideband LNA for quite some time and with good results.
Then again I was pointed at the TGN-Technology ULNA3018 DAB MK V DAB preamplifier which doesn’t use BIAS-T but an external power inserter.

ULNA3018 MK V preamplifier
ULNA3018 DAB MK V DAB preamplifier
ULNA3018 MK V with case
ULNA3018 DAB MK V DAB preamplifier case

When doing these small upgrades the antenna mast was lowered to almost ground level.
I did some comparing of DAB signal strengths on very local strong muxes with very stable signal levels.
The new ULNA3018 MK V did slightly better than the good old RTLSDR LNA, but only slightly.
So I was rather pleasantly surprised by the performance of this cheap RTLSDR Wideband LNA.
With the mast up again the brand new ULNA3018 MKV does well with strong overall signal levels.

Körner 15.11 and FUBA DAB antennas with new preamp.
Körner 15.11 and FUBA 307 DAB antennas

September 19 2024

Posted on by FMDABDXer

MHz UTC ITU Program + Location Details Remarks km
88.10 0658 DNK DR P1/DR P2, Århus/Søsterhøj/Ny Moesgårdsvej 61 (mjy) 673km
97.20 0701 DNK DR P3, Rangstrup/Gammel Tøndervej 28 (sdk) PI logged: 9203 547km
103.00 0701 DNK Radio 4, Århus/Søsterhøj/Ny Moesgårdsvej 61 (mjy) 673km
99.60 0702 DNK DR P3, Næstved/Øverup/Køgevej 291 (sjl) 669km
101.60 0703 DNK Radio 4, Næstved/Øverup/Køgevej 291 (sjl) 669km
103.90 0706 DNK Nova, Næstved/Øverup/Køgevej 291 (sjl) very weak 669km
100.50 0712 DNK Radio 4, Sønder Højrup/Sdr. Højrupvejen 21 (sdk) 612km
93.40 0716 D Deutschlandfunk Kultur, Emden (nds) very weak 314km
94.90 0727 G BBC Radio 4, Forfar (SC-ANG) very weak 792km
102.10 0744 DNK Radio 4, Rangstrup/Gammel Tøndervej 28 (sdk) 547km
100.30 0745 DNK Radio 4, Holstebro/Mejrup/Kalsgårdvej 11 (mjy) 653km
90.90 0752 D NDR 1 Niedersachsen, Hannover/Hemmingen (nds) 377km

Map

MHz Block UTC ITU Ensemble + Location Details Remarks km
232.50 13B 0658 DNK DAB2 N, Aalborg/Nibe/Tostrupbrovej (njy) 742km
232.50 13B 0658 DNK DAB2 N, Hadsten/Brundtvej 11 (mjy) 684km
232.50 13B 0747 DNK DAB2 N, Thisted/Hanstholmvej 46 (njy) 713km
232.50 13B 0747 DNK DAB2 N, Mariager/Øster Doense/Rostrupvej 12A/Tinghøj (njy) 719km
232.50 13B 0747 DNK DAB2 N, Århus/Søsterhøj/Ny Moesgårdsvej 61 (mjy) 673km
232.50 13B 0752 DNK DAB2 N, Ebeltoft/Elsegårdevej 26 (mjy) 698km
232.50 13B 0757 DNK DAB2 N, Brønderslev/Stadevej 33 (njy) 777km
229.07 12D 0802 HOL Flevoland, Lelystad/Cellnex toren (fle) 177km
232.50 13B 0808 DNK DAB2 N, Viborg/Sparkær/Fusagervej (mjy) 676km
239.20 13F 0824 NOR NRK Reg3 SørRog, Søgne (va) 813km
239.20 13F 0824 NOR NRK Reg3 SørRog, Greipstad/Eidsåvegen (va) 828km
197.65 8B 0831 DNK DAB2 S, Varde/Nordenskov/Kærgårdsvej 41B (sdk) 581km
204.64 9B 0902 D Antenne DE, Fulda/Hummelskopf (hes) 351km

Logs September 19 2024
DAB DX

Map